Cohousing, where residents own their own home, but regularly share in community activities including common meals, centred around a community house. Cohousing communities are designed to address and encourage social interaction and reduce living expenses. Most dwellings are owned under separate title and can be easily bought and sold. Every house has its own kitchen and living area and often a private yard.

Rural & urban housing co-operatives, where all members have an equal share in all households but have the right to occupy (often through leasehold) their own house or unit. Houses are often spread out over separate suburban locations. All residents share in the responsibility for maintaining and running their household.

Communes, where the property and most resources are shared. There is less personal property and the emphasis and values are directed to sharing facilities and resources.

Ecovillages, where a community is dedicated to preserving and enhancing the environment. Often eco-villages are self-sustaining and promote/include eco-businesses including organic produce. They aim to ‘tread lightly’ on the planet.

VicUrban supports the SLF philosophy. Their approach is based on a balance of five core objectives:

Two Eco-Villages

Established in the 1970s Moora Moora is a co-operative residential community made up of a diverse group of about 50 adults and 20 children. They deliberately choose to live together in six small hamlets located on a co-operatively owned 245 hectare (600 acre) property situated at an altitude of 700 meters (2400 feet) on Mount Toolebewong.

The community is situated near the township of Healesville, approximately 67 km (90 minutes by car) to the east of Melbourne.

Moora Moora Philosophy

“We are a group of people…some concerned with the noise, foul air, water and food of the city, and with our polluted environment…about the isolation and loneliness of suburban living, its increasingly high cost, the narrowness of the isolated nuclear family, the lack of community facilities and co-operative living. We regret the superficiality of our human relationships within the suburban street, living near neighbours we didn’t choose, the isolation of the non-working wife and the lack of continuous playmates for the children.

Others primarily concerned with education are dissatisfied with the alienation between learning and living as well as with the forms and content of education. They see our intended community as an educational community: a community that finds life and richness in the pursuit of individual and community development…

We are creating a co-operative community with a diversity of personalities and lifestyles that enable us to shape our environment and live with people of our own choosing. Our primary concerns are social, educational and ecological.

The mode of learning will be as diversified as possible to suit the needs of all of us…The emphasis, however, will be on the apprentice/learning exchange approach where all who wish to learn would seek out those who have some skill or insight to offer. In short you learn how to do it yourself with the help of some friends.

Visitors may wish to visit us for a specific purpose rather than desire to immerse themselves in our whole way of living and learning. They might take part in apprentice-style learning or seminar/workshops. The influx of people for weekends and holidays may provide employment, full or part time, for members of the community.

However, we do not seek to create a tribal village with its restrictions on personal growth…We will go beyond our community whenever it is beneficial. The interchange should be fruitful to the members of the co-operative as well as to society at large.”

Community Life

“We are aiming not only for a diversity of styles of living but for a variety of social groupings. We envisage four types of social grouping within the co-operative: the individual, the family unit, the cluster , and the community. This allows for individuals, single parent families, nuclear families, communal or extended family groupings. We hope that the community will have roughly equal numbers of children and adults.

The basic unit of the community is the cluster, in which dwellings are grouped together on a two acre site. The cluster lends itself to a variety of expressions – any arrangement of single or communal dwellings. The more communal the buildings, the greater the degree of shared facilities and the closer the interpersonal relationships. We have a permit for six clusters with four to six dwellings in each cluster. “

This is a proposed Australian Ecosystems (AE) sustainable housing project in South Gippsland, Victoria, involving large scale habitat resoration, sustainable architecture, renewable energy, health and community development.

“Australian Ecosystems is an environmental restoration and ecological consultancy company founded in 1997, built on a vision of protecting and enhancing biodiversity in Australia.

Throughout the late 1990s it took the form of a group of friends working together to build a nursery and undertaking planting in wetland restoration projects around Melbourne. Since then the company has grown to employ around 80 staff, including botanists, horticulturalists, landscape architects, weed control specialists and environmental engineers.

Australian Ecosystems is an integrated company that collects seed, propagates, plants and maintains over 3 million locally indigenous plants per annum on land ecological restoration projects around Victoria. The company provides five core areas of service – consultancy, nursery, revegetation, wetland and landscape management. We aim to establish biologically diverse vegetation communities that are high in habitat values, that reflect the composition and structure of natural remnant vegetation and that are ecologically viable.”

17 Responses to “
CoHousing – A New AFFORDABLE Australian Dream? ”

Great to organize such a festival! in case you want to have a view from within about cohousing, watch the documentary “Voices of Cohousing. Rebuilding villages in the city”, award winner at 34th Ekotopfilm festival and officially selected at 9th Gold Panda Awards 2007. Info and trailer: http://notsocrazy.net
have fun at the festival!
Matthieu

Hi guys,
co-housing is very popular and successful in Canada, and would be a good place to visit via google for information on both the infrastructure and the economic management.

The only drawback is that you tend to be in eachothers’ faces quite a lot, and until there a consensual “culture” of how to cooperate with the common facilities has developed, it can be a bit of an “adventure”.

Interested to see if anyone has leads on shared living for the aged that looks beyound the usual models. Aging communities in large empty four bedroom home will become even less viable as amenity prices increase.

18 months ago I set up a site for single parents to use to take advantage of house sharing to cut costs and support each other. We now have approx 1,500 parents on our database and have been featured on A Current Affair and Today Tonight. The feedback we have had from parents has been great – http://www.space4.com.au

Hi Mandi, re aged living arrangements
i have been a nurse in several aged care facilities, and know i dont want to end up there. so i have been trying to circumvent that option. i have heard about people forming a coop group who purchases or organises a building to their own specs, where everyone has their own room and communal living area all suitable for disabled people, and has a nurse 2x 12 hour shifts to attend to help with meds, dressings, food prep, etc something along thee lines so people dont have to go to a big institution, and can feel more ‘at home’ even though they are a bit past the stage of being home alone. they may not be totally decrepit, but still not safe home alone. as time goes by, i will be on the lookout for people to join in somthing like this. its quite popular in the US. anyway food for thought. in the meantime, i would consider a co-housing arrangement to cut down on expenses and as security for my house as i travel a lot, and dont make full use of where i live. i am in south east queensland. cheers

The idea is to use caravan park and mobile home legislation. All members are expected to volunteer their time doing something for the community and the environment for a couple of hours a day. Most people on the pension can not afford the establishment costs for cohousing, so another system is required. I think we have it.

Hi Marlene, re aged care housing. My sister and I have been discussing the need for independent aged care in-own-home arrangements for a few years now. We also live in Sth East Qld. My sister has come up with an ideal housing plan that we think ticks all the boxes.
Our problem has always been – where do we go from here….?
Our idea is that we know alot of single women, all heading into their 50’s now, and its alittle frightening to think of us all sitting in our own homes alone.
So we have designed what we think is the ideal remedy.
One woman alone cannot do all the maintenance and gardening required. A few women together (and yet still independent) can.
We would love to discuss this with other women to get a general concensus of whether it would work. Please let me know if this appeals.

Hi Su,
I’m reseaching a possible story about ageing and housing, for the ABC TV program ‘Compass’. It will look at the benefits of various alternative housing models for aged Australians – ie alternatives to traditional retirement villages and nursing homes. I’m considering cohousing, various homeshare arrangments, intentional communities, coops etc. I’d be very interested in talking to anyone like yourself, who has thought about this issue and who is trying to come up with innovative solution. If you’re interested you can email me on baker.jeannine@abc.net.au

I have been wanting to get involved in something like this for a long time but my little feeble efforts to start something up kind of did not stir life in anyone I have too much money for state housing and too little work to get or want a mortgage and interested in finding other people in same position I am able to relocate but just now I am in WA for another year I think
I fancy living with a small group of greying envirominded people near a city using permaculture principles and composting toilets grey water etc Not too many people and with perhaps complimentary skills It is the only way to go for me I think altho I also have dreams of living in a wooden yurt……..

Hi, I lived at Cascade Cohousing in Hobart for a few years before leaving home. It really worked for me and my mother – the intergenerational aspect gives all residents strong links to the wider community. I’ve recently begun a Sydney Cohousing group that intends to build in an urban setting. If you’re interested your can find us at http://sydneycohousing.blogspot.com/ or email us at sydneycohousing@gmail.com

HI There
I am trying to find some members for a new intentional community with a focus on growing food, living simply and sharing resources, relating honestly and intimately with others, homeschooling and shared income creation.
WE have puchased 60 acres in the bush half an hour from Gympie with good soil and water and i have been growing food, chicken etc for 4 years and now am ready to open up the place to communal living. I envisage 12 or so adults and as many kids as come with that
If anyone is interested write to coondoofarm@gmail.com

I have a house in Newcastle and would love to share it (with someone either buying in or renting part)with both people having some private and some shared space. I had communal experiences in the 70s in both SE Queensland and Northern NSW and so I am aware of the many ways it can work. I am a 64yr old female. Paula

Im also from Newcastle. Last night on Channel 2 there was a specialon Compass: Part 3 of 3 on this subject of ageing in a community. They had a segment on Mora Mora above, a segment on Abbeyfield (Vic)a community share house, each person has their own room, bathroom and laundry AND individual entrance, but with a common kitchen and communal living loungeroom andone full time staff member to cook 2 meals a day for the 10 elderly residents living there. The 3rd segment was on Wesley homeshare where the elderly lady has a room for a younger boarder who was a uni student who also did about 10 hrs of chores around house each week.
I have not watched the other 2 segments. As a 40 plus year old living singly and not being able or wanting to buy a house to grow old in bymyself Im looking seriously at this option.